Chapter History

Bay Area Huskers History

This is a history of the Bay Area Huskers, formerly Bay Area Nebraska Alumni Association and prior to that known as the University of Nebraska Alumni Association of San Francisco. The writer wants to thank two special alumni for their efforts in keeping historic information about the San Francisco Chapter. Mrs. Virginia Taylor Hall, Class of 1927, and the late Mr. Herb Potter, Class of 1943, who both gave much of their time and effort to maintain information about our local Chapter. Mrs. Virginia Taylor Hall saved many programs, letters and announcements from 1927 through 1973. Mr. Herb Potter was previously Chapter historian and has left the chapter with many notebooks filled with Chapter mementos.

The Chapter may have been in existence prior to 1927. No records are available to verify of any existence before 1927.

Many wonderful Alumni have worked hard to keep the Chapter active and ongoing throughout the years. Please see Appendix A for a list of the Presidents over the years.

Miss Hana Johnson, Class of 1929, was the chapter secretary for many years and Dwight Brinton, Class of 1934, was also the chapter treasurer for many years. Mr. Forest R. Hall, Class of 1927, served from 1937 through 1939, and Mrs. Virginia Taylor Hall, Class of 1927, served from 1956 through 1957, were the only husband and wife to serve as presidents of the chapter. One alumnus gave his life in the service of the chapter. Mr. Earle Smith, class of 1940, was showing pictures at the 1955 Charter Day dinner when he suffered a heart attack. He died several days later.

One of the yearly highlights has been the Charter Day Dinners. Please see Appendix B for a list of many of the sites of the spring charter day dinners. The Chapter went to another College one year when they held the Charter Day dinner at Mills College in Oakland. There have been many special programs over the years, highlights have been the Scarlet and Cream Singers and Dr. Tom Osborne who honored the chapter on two different occasions.

Over the years the San Francisco Chapter held many Picnics. See Appendix C for a list of known locations where summer picnics have been held. Various types of picnics have been held. One of the more popular types is the current Nebraska steak picnic which was started by Dr. Robert E. ‘Buck’ McCoy, Class of 1955, President from 1984 through 1987. It was at one of these picnics that the hard working volunteers celebrated a ‘Mexican Sunrise.’ In the year 2000, the former President Lloyd McBeth, Class of 1950, continued as picnic coordinator assisted by his ‘Three Amigos;’, who were past Chapter President, Carl Honaker, Class of 1975, past Chapter President, Gerald Stratbucker, Class of 1958 and Jack Hansen, Class of 1951 and former Chapter Vice President. Assisting was a very willing and able Board of Directors.

The current members of the San Francisco Chapter, known originally as the ‘Bay Area Nebraska Alumni Association’ are very proud of the endowed scholarship fund which allows local California high school graduates financial aid in going back to our beloved Alma Mater.

Carlos Harrison together with then president, James Gwynn were both instrumental in initiating the Hobart Davis Scholarship Fund.

The endowed scholarship was initially named after Hobart S. Davis, Class of 1925, an active board member during the 1970’s and 1980’s. In 2009, we changed the name of the scholarship fund to the Dr. Buck McCoy Memorial Scholarship Fund in honor of one of of our past presidents who was the founder of our annual barbecue and also contributed much time and effort to the chapter. The son of Hobart Davis agreed to this change.

As of 2014, the chapter has provided funds for 28 Bay Area students to attend UNL, Including some matching funds from UNL. The Bay Area Huskers have generated over $75,000 in financial aid. With the generous help of our Bay Area Chapter Members, we again 2014 offered four $1,000.00 scholarships. Mr. James R. Gwynn, Class of 1949, was president in 1990 when the initial scholarship fund was initiated.

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s the Chapter was active in representing the University at the yearly San Francisco Unified School District’s College/Career Fair held at Brooks Hall. Volunteers at these College/Career Fairs were Jim and Bobbie Gwynn, Lloyd and Donna McBeth and Carlos Harrison. Jim and Bobbie Gwynn also represented the Chapter and University for two years at the Mount Diablo Unified School Districts College/Career Fair held in Walnut Creek. Dave Pegg also represented the Chapter and University at College/Career Fairs while he was President of the Chapter.

During the 1990’s the Chapter actively supported and attended the Shriner’s East-West luncheons. Many times the Chapter was recognized for having the most College/University members present and for the most College/University spirit.

The Chapter has been represented over the years with Chapter alumni winning various National Alumni Awards. They are as follows:

Increased TV coverage of ‘Big Red’ football has allowed the Chapter to participate in TV Watch Parties at various sites around the Bay Area. These sites included Concord, Fremont, Palo Alto, Petaluma, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Clara and Santa Rosa. The Big Ten Network, satellite dishes and cable TV have also increased alumni watch parties in alumni homes. Currently, there are five active watch sites which include San Francisco, San Ramon, Concord, San Jose and Seaside.

Over the years, the Chapter has had calling committees to “Get out the Word” of ‘Big Red’ activities. E-mail has made that communication efforts a lot easier and which helped attendance at ‘Big Red’ functions. Carl Honaker started sending out emails to those who provided their emails at chapter events. The Chapter web page, initiated by Former President Ken Nix, Class of 1948, is another great help in spreading the ‘Big Red’ story. The Chapter Web Site is now handled by current Chapter President, Brian Dehning, who took over as President in 2011 after Dave Pegg stepped down to oversee the scholarship fund. Rita Larson is overseeing our Chapter Facebook and Twitter account and handles our other social media communications.

In September 2012, at the annual Chapter Leadership Conference in Lincoln, Bay Area Huskers was honored by the Nebraska Alumni Association at the NAA’s first annual Chapter and Organizations recognition night (CORNYs). Our Chapter earned an Award of Excellence for communications. Our Chapter name was placed on a banner back in Lincoln and we also received a plaque. We earned the award for our chapter email communication system, Facebook, Twitter and our Chapter Web Site.

In July 2012, the Chapter initiated it first Chapter Membership requirement. Yearly membership dues are required to be a member of the Bay Area Huskers Chapter. The establishment of membership dues was done to help create the opportunity to provide more scholarships to Bay Area Students to attend UNL. The weekly email, now sent out by Brian Dehning, is included as a benefit for being an annual Bay Area Chapter member. Paypal was set up for on-line transactions in 2012.

In November 2012 we created our Chapter Banner for Lincoln and were proud and excited to see it hanging in Memorial Stadium for the last two Husker football home games. It was prominently displayed on TV and was seen at our watch sites, What a thrill. The banner was updated in 2014 and now includes the SF Downtown backdrop.

In November 2012, we started selling our first Bay Area Husker tee-shirts. Demand for the shirts has been strong and they help us promote our alumni chapter. We expanded our chapter items to include sweatshirts and koozies.

2013 – We hosted our first “Taste of Nebraska” event at Jacks Brewing Company in San Ramon, featuring Valentino’s pizza. There were 70 Husker fans in attendance.

2014 – We teamed up with Buffalo wild Wings to provide a change in Watch Site locations in San Ramon, San Francisco and Seaside/Monterey. Women’s Bling shirts were offered for sale for the first time and the Chapter started awarding Nebraska Legends Scholarships.

In September at the annual Chapter Leadership Conference in Lincoln, Bay Area Huskers was honored and received recognition for starting a Nebraska Legends Scholarship for incoming UNL Freshmen. We were also recognized for our Excellence in Membership for 2013/2014 by the Nebraska Alumni Association.

2015 – The Chapter sold polo shirts. Ron Kellogg III was the featured guest at the annual BBQ in Sunnyvale. Bay Area Huskers and UCLA Alumni Bay Area Bruins held a joint tailgate prior to the Foster Farms Bowl Game at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara.

We awarded our highest dollar total of scholarships this year.

2016 – The Chapter By-Laws and Articles of Association were updated. This will be the first year that the annual BBQ will be catered.

This alumnus is very happy to report that in the year 2016 when this history is being updated, that the Chapter is definitely an asset to the larger University of Nebraska family.